Week # 25: Neighbors

Week #25 - Neighbors. Who were your childhood neighbors? Have you kept in touch with any of them? Do you feel the concept of “neighbors” has changed since then?

Sorry that I've been slacking these weekly posts. I logged in today determined to do one no matter what the suggested topic but I was pleasantly surprised to see that it was a subject that I had a lot to say about!

Our neighborhood growing up was THE BEST! Our house sat in the middle of a row of about 7 houses where the neighbors became some of our (and our parents) best friends. First of all, our immediate next door neighbors on one side were my Aunt, Uncle and cousins. That was great to begin with because it was like having a second house and yard. There were no fences between the yards and we ran through their yard (and many of the neighbor's yards) as if we owned them too! If we got bored at our house we could go over to our cousin's house (entering with just a warning double knock on the front door) and see what was going on over there. The other neighboring families happened to all have kids close to our own ages and mothers who all happened to be stay at home moms like ours. Summer evenings in the neighborhood were the most fun when everyone was outside--the kids playing, riding bikes or roller skating and the parents all gathering in one yard or another to chat and maybe have a drink or two! We had an open green space behind our houses where everyone would often gather for games of baseball or soccer.

My favorite memory would have to be the parties. For special occasions (or sometimes just because) we had a lamb roast (big family tradition as you've noticed from some of the pictures in previous posts) and family, friends and neighbors would all come to eat and socialize during the afternoon. In the evening, it turned into the neighbors sitting around the fire talking, laughing, and finishing off the keg of beer! Meanwhile the kids, with our walkie talkies and flashlights, would sneak around the yards making a game of "spying" on the adults. Looking back now I am not sure how this held our attention for the hours that it did but somehow it was always fun. It may have helped that we were probably high on sugar from all the party food and were up way past our normal bed time. One time some other neighbors, who were obviously jealous that they were not invited, called the police on our parents because we were being too loud!

Do we keep in touch today? Many of us do, to some extent. Everyone has since moved but some are still in the area and sometimes "the moms" get together for dinner. Just a few weeks ago my sister's friend Annie (from 2 doors down in the old neighborhood) and her mom stopped by to visit.

I do think neighbors and neighborhoods have changed some since that time (we are talking about 1980s mainly). There are still some places where people end up forming little groups of friends with their neighbors like we did but I think it is harder now. More mothers are working outside the home and kids are doing more scheduled activities after school and on the weekends instead of just going home and running around the neighborhood with siblings and friends.

I don't know if our experience with our childhood neighboorhood is completely unique but I do know we definitely had a lot of good times on Falcon Circle!